Hah! Subbarao cracks joke on cash reserve ratio

Mumbai: RBI Governor D Subbarao on Tuesday "announced" the formation of a committee with K C Chakrabarty and Pratip Chaudhuri to look into the issue of Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) but only to retract shortly later on the "joke".

"Late last night I signed off a paper forming a committee. The terms of reference for the committee are whether we should continue with CRR or not," he said at the annual Ficci-IBA banking conference here.

RBI Governor D Subbarao. Reuters

For a while the audience took the announcement seriously and some journalists "flashed" the news.

The announcement was made in the presence of his deputy Chakrabarty and SBI chief Chaudhuri, who have been engaged in a spat on the issue.

"Members of the committee are Dr Chakabarty and Shri Pratip Chaudhuri. Process of the committee will be that both of them will be locked up in a room until they reach a conclusion and the time frame is that they will not submit their report till my term as Governor is over," Subbarao told the audience that burst into laughter on realising the joke.

After the speech, when asked if he was serious or joking, Subbarao retorted: "What do you think?"